According
to the official People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) newspaper "People's
Navy Daily", the sixth Type 052C Destroyer (NATO designation Luyang
II class) named Xi'an was commissioned into the PLAN on February
9. Xi'an with hull number 153 is the last Type 052C Destroyer
of the series. From now on, the PLAN will commission improved and more
powerful destroyers such as the Type
052D and the future Type 055.

Type
052C Destroyer Xi'An (hull number 153) at the Changxing Jiangnan naval
shipyard near Shanghai. It is the last destroyer of this type.

The first two Type 052C
vessels Lanzhou (hull number 170) and Haikou (hull number
171) were laid down at the older Shanghai shipyard in 2002 and handed
over to the PLAN, in July 2004 and December 2005 respectively.
The program was then paused until 2010 probably because of construction
difficulties due to the complex nature of these vessels.

Construction restarted at the new shipyard (Changxing Jiangnan) in November
2010 with the third destroyer Changchun (hull
number 153). It was delivered to the PLAN in January 2013. It was followed
at a fast pace by two more Type 052C: Zhengzhou (hull number
151) commissioned in December 2013 and Jinan (hull number 152)
commissioned in December 2014. With the commissioning of Xi'An,
the Type 052C program is now over. The last four destroyers of the class
are part of the Eastern Fleet while the first two belong to the PLAN's
South Sea Fleet.

The first Type
052D (Luyang III class) destroyer was commissioned in March
last year. Two more destroyers of this type are currently conducting
sea trials while Navy Recognition's Chinese sources indicate that at least
six more Type 052D destroyers are at various stages of constructions in
Chinese shipyards.